tag:www.kickstarter.com,2008-10-09:/projects/epiphanylabs/epiphany-one-puck/postsKickstarter: Epiphany onE Puck2015-07-31T21:26:27-04:00tag:www.kickstarter.com,2008-10-09:Post/13110822015-07-31T21:31:47-04:002017-08-02T20:12:43-04:00Update #14<p><b>Dear onE Puck Backers, </b></p><p><b>Epiphany labs has, since its inception, had the goal of
creating innovative products to better peoples’ lives around the world. The strong response we
received on the onE Puck project was truly humbling, as we knew we had developed
a product that would be able to support our goal. Unfortunately, the process of
developing a prototype to a fully commercial-ready product has taken longer
(much longer) than expected. We apologize that we have failed to update you on
the progress we’ve made.</b></p><p><b>We fell short of the promise we made to you, our backers,
that we would complete the development of a product in an allotted timeframe and, if unable to do
so, to do our best to inform you as to why. We want to let you know that we
understand your frustration. After over two years of hard work, development
hurdles, funding shortfalls, missed deadlines, and lack of communication, we
are finally back on track.</b></p><p><b>Unfortunately, we were unable to report or discuss any of
our technological progress publicly during the past year because, due to recent
changes in US patent law, any public disclosure of our technology would have
jeopardized our ability to file for protection of our intellectual
property. Now that we have recently filed for patent protection of the core
concepts that make the onE Puck such a special piece of technology, we will be able to begin providing detailed
explanations about how the onE Puck technology
works.</b></p><p><b>Here is what you can expect from us:</b></p><p><b>During the coming months, as we lead up to the release of
the long-awaited final product, you can expect more communication from us,
including direct, personal responses to everyone who
has raised a concern about our company or our intentions over the past two
years. We will also be releasing a series of technical documents explaining the
technology behind the onE Puckand where it
is going from here.</b></p><p><b>Thanks again for your patience and support.</b></p><p><b>Sincerely, </b></p><p><b>Tommy Joseph and the onE Puck Team</b></p>tag:www.kickstarter.com,2008-10-09:Post/7740492014-03-11T17:13:32-04:002015-06-23T14:54:25-04:00onE Puck Update #13<p>Hello onE Puck Backers!</p><p>As we approach our proposed shipping date, we would like to provide you all with some insight into what's going on here at Epiphany.</p><p>Some of you may have noticed that we have intentionally chosen not to share much about the details of the product development recently. Thanks to Kickstarter and all of our faithful backers, we’ve realized what a HUGE
opportunity we’ve discovered with the onE Puck. Now, we’re trying to be
extremely careful about the way we bring it to market. </p><p>The success of our Kickstarter campaign, has brought us to the attention of several big box retailers as well as investors from
around the world. The opportunity is so large and could have such an impact
on Epiphany's future that the last thing we want to do is accidentally reveal something that could
interfere with our patentability or market edge. So, while our silence is
leading to criticism by a small number (about 2%) of our backers, it
is well worth it in the big scheme. </p><p>As far as shipping is concerned, we’re still working hard
to ship as quickly as possible. However, we are also in the midst of
discussions with some massive investors who have hinted that they may want us
to delay shipment if they write us a check. If that happens and if they require
a delay longer than a few months, we will probably elect to offer everyone
refunds so no one will have reason to complain. Then, we would give our
backers priority ordering ability as soon as we are ready to ship. </p><p>We will be in touch and share more as soon as there is
something more concrete.</p><p>Thanks again for your ongoing support.</p><p>-Tommy J and the Epiphany Team</p>tag:www.kickstarter.com,2008-10-09:Post/6946862013-12-14T10:39:22-05:002014-07-12T03:38:03-04:00onE Puck Update<p>Hello onE Puck Backers!<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /></p><p>We want to thank ALL who have been supportive of the
Epiphany onE Puck project. We've been working hard and the time is
coming when you all will finally see the fruit of our labor. Soon, just as
we promised, you will be holding in your hands the Epiphany onE Puck.</p><p>A few of you have asked for more pictures and technical
updates and they’ll be coming soon too.We
promise that when we're done you will not be disappointed. </p><p>So, once again, thank you for believing in us, the onE
Puck project, and our work.We
appreciate all of your patience.</p><p>Thank you!</p><p>-Tommy J and the onE Puck Team</p>tag:www.kickstarter.com,2008-10-09:Post/5580862013-08-02T16:30:18-04:002013-11-25T14:03:29-05:00onE Puck Tees & Stickers<p>Hey onE
Puck Backers!</p><p>We
are so happy to see people already commenting on the awesome Epiphany t-shirts that
went out recently!</p><p>We
have already received a few emails from people excited to receive and show off
the Epiphany team shirts and stickers, but we want to see <em>you</em>, our backers, wearing them!</p><p>If
you‘ve already received your shirt <em>please </em>take a picture of yourself posing in
it, and post it to our Facebook page to show off how great you look. If you haven’t gotten yours yet, hang tight… they’ll
be there soon.</p><p>Don't
forget to show off your stickers too! Put them somewhere noticable and show the world that <strong><em>We R onE</em></strong>.</p><p>More
updates coming soon.</p><p>
Thank
you for being <strong><em>onE Believer</em></strong>!</p><p>-Tommy J and the onE Puck Team</p>tag:www.kickstarter.com,2008-10-09:Post/5439012013-07-19T12:49:54-04:002014-01-01T06:03:46-05:00onE Puck Update<p>Hello
All!</p><p>Thank you to everyone who has
continued to support the Epiphany onE Puck project. We know you are all very excited and anxious
to know our internal progress, and we love that your interest level has not
wavered.<br>We just want to recap what
Epiphany Labs is about, and what we have accomplished through the onE Puck...<br>Epiphany Labs is a group of
technologists and business professionals who have a passion for inventing new technologies
and tinkering with existing ones to develop products that create positive
changes throughout the world. We’ve been
working in research and development on heat cycles and engine technology for
more than 12 years now. Most of the
research going on in this industry is related to much larger, low-production
volume engines. Thanks to the support of
1175 amazing backers, we raised $132,739 during our 60 day Kickstarter
campaign.Now that we have reached our
pledged goal, we have hired additional people to help us take the onE Puck from
prototype to production.<br>We’re working diligently to
make this a reality and deliver the onE Pucks to all of you by next March, as
promised. We only ask that you please stay positive until the release date, and
continue to be understanding with the product development and commercialization
period. We will continue to update you
when new advancements arise.<br><br>
Thank you!<br><br>
-Tommy J and the onE Puck Team</p><p>(P.S.
The onE Puck t-shirts and stickers finally arrived last week. They’re on their
way to you this week!)</p>tag:www.kickstarter.com,2008-10-09:Post/5164492013-06-21T02:29:18-04:002013-06-21T02:29:18-04:00Progress Report<p>Hello Everyone!</p><p>Epiphany
is continuing to develop into a thriving business, and with any business comes
a few areas that take longer to develop than others. This does not mean we are
at a stand still in the production process, but actually are using incisive
moves in the direction of completion. Thank you for your support! </p><p>Although
we may not always be quick to respond to every concern posted, please try to be
patient with us, as we are with the project itself. We don't settle for
anything less than perfection with everything we do. We are
working day and night to deliver our very best to you and everyone else that
supports what we are doing here in Epiphany Labs. </p><p>With that being said, here are some fresh updates:</p><ul>
<li>We are
now finally comfortable in our new building, which means it's back to the lab
we go to find new ways to continue to make the onE puck even better than
before.</li>
<li>We have
also been building onto our ever-growing E-team with the addition of a few new
bright engineers and interns to aide in all areas of engineering and mass production.</li>
<li>We are
still working hard to reach our goals, internal deadlines, and promises made to
each of you, our strong onE Puck supporters!</li>
<li>Get
excited because the T-shirts are shipping next week.</li>
<li>The
social media side of our project will be taking life again in the near future,
with a blog page and weekly updates on our progress inside the lab. </li>
</ul><p>Again, thank you for your support, patience, and interest
in everything that our project has been working towards.</p><p>-Tommy J and the onE Puck Team</p>tag:www.kickstarter.com,2008-10-09:Post/4618842013-04-23T13:03:19-04:002013-04-23T13:03:19-04:00Post funding Update #1<p><strong>Hello onE Puck Backers!<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /></strong></p><p>Thanks again for your awesome
support! Here's a quick update on what has taken place since the project ended
a couple of weeks ago:</p><p><strong>1)</strong> During the last few weeks of
the project funding window, we were approached by even more big name investors
and major retailers from all over the world. That means that when we take the
onE Puck to production, we are likely to be making 100,000 at a time, in
addition to the 1,300 or so that were ordered through the Kickstarter campaign.
We have all of you to thank for bringing us the popularity it took to make that
happen!</p><p><strong>2)</strong> As many of you know, there is
a 2 week hold on the funds after the project completes. That hold just ended a
couple of days ago, so now we can access the funds and get to work.</p><p><strong>3)</strong> Last week I made a scouting
trip to the SF Bay area to start getting ready to set up our West Coast
development team. A very good friend of ours is a partner in a really cool
startup called Suaree (check it out at <a href="http://www.kickstarter.com/wymeditor_iframe/suaree.com" target="_blank">suaree.com</a>),
and they are going to help us out with office space and technical expertise as
the project develops.</p><p><strong>4)</strong> For the past week, we have
been in the process of moving the offices of our sister company, Epiphany Solar
Water Systems, to a much larger and nicer facility in the Lawrenceville area of
Pittsburgh, PA. This is a huge step forward for us, as it will give us the
prototyping lab space and production space we need to take both of these
projects to market during the next several months.</p><p><strong>5)</strong> In the middle of all of this
excitement, we are in the process of ordering the T-shirts and window stickers
we promised all of you.</p><p>So, although we have not done a
great job of keeping you up to date for the past few weeks, we are moving
forward quickly and aggressively to lay the foundation we need to take this
project to completion. Within the next week or so, we will be settled into our
new place, and we'll get back to the real engineering work. At that point, it
will be our goal to provide you with regular updates on technical progress.</p><p>We will also be revamping our
website and setting up a blog so all of the onE Puck backers can communicate
and share in the progress.</p><p>Lastly, keep an eye out for emails
asking for your T-shirt choice and size in the next several days.</p><p>Thanks again!</p><p>Tommy Joseph and the onE Puck
Team</p>tag:www.kickstarter.com,2008-10-09:Post/4464202013-04-05T10:01:53-04:002013-04-05T10:01:53-04:00Ask your friends to become part of our onE World!<p>From
all of us here at Epiphany Labs, we would like to thank you for helping make
this campaign a great success and for being a onE believer.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /></p><p>The
response has meant a lot. We are grateful to all of you for supporting this
project.</p><p>There
are 2 days left for our campaign. Please help us reach our stretch goals by
spreading the word for a final push. Ask your friends to become part of our onE
World. It would be greatly appreciated!”</p><p>Tom Joseph and The Epiphany Team</p>tag:www.kickstarter.com,2008-10-09:Post/4421032013-03-31T18:52:42-04:002013-03-31T18:52:42-04:00onE Puck Update - Thanks for your support!To all of our onE Puck Backers and Supporters:
We have received several questions and comments lately relating to our patent filing strategy, efficiency values, and details about the design of the Stirling engine we are using. Below is the private response we have sent to our existing Backers, but we thought we should share the message with the rest of you too...
Thanks for your support and for the spirited discussion! We are thrilled with the level of enthusiasm and support all of you have shown us.
To address your questions, let's start with this: 1) We have not filed patents yet, but for good reasons. Our patent filing strategy, including Provisional Applications, PCTs, and National Level entries, are all very well planned well in advance. Tuukka's advice to cancel the project and reinitiate it after filing patents would seem to make good sense at first glance, but there are many variables to patent filing strategy. For example: Consider that patent applications become public information to the whole world 6 months after filing, and most of the world has a "first to file" standard, rather than "first to invent." This means that, unless you are prepared to file patents globally from day one, you are sometimes better off keeping your secrets to yourself for as long as possible, then filing provisionals for a year, then PCTs, which give you another 12-18 months, and then, finally filing national level entries after you have vetted your markets. If this seems like a long, drawn out process, that's because it is, but it provides the inventor with the best long-term protection. The whole discussion of our patent protection strategy could take a page of it own, so we'll leave it at that for now, but if any of our backers are curious to know more, please let us know and we'll be glad to share our thoughts.
On your comments about efficiency, the answer is yes, it varies greatly as the temperature varies, and yes, we expect the onE Puck to be able to handle much higher temperatures (at least as hot as an open candle flame) by the time we ship them to you. As we have explained in other comments and updates, it would be unreasonable to expect your phone to get anywhere near a full charge from a single drink. A series of drinks could potentially provide a full charge but, again, that would be missing the real point of the onE Puck.
Although you can use the onE Puck as a cool way to keep your phone topped off on the road, and you can use hotter (or colder), and longer lasting heat sources to get a full charge from scratch, the most the onE Puck is ever going to accomplish, in its current form, is the ability to keep your cell phone working. It's (probably) not going to save anyone's life, and it's not going to change the lot of humanity for the better.
What we're hoping for is that our backers, in addition to wanting a really cool phone charger, understand that the real point here is to provide this technology as a stepping stone to something that is going to change our onE World. Over the past 54 days, you, our backers, have helped us prove that there is widespread demand for this technology. In addition to the funding you have provided, your support has also helped us receive a tremendous amount of attention and interest from media outlets, distribution, and manufacturing partners around the world. We are now absolutely certain that the world is ready for widespread adoption of this technology in larger, and mass-produced versions. When that happens (and it will be sooner than we thought), the technology that you are helping us to promote here IS going to change our onE World, it IS going to save lives, and, most importantly, it IS going to enhance lives and grant otherwise impossible opportunities to people around the world. We have all of you to thank for that, and we hope you are all as excited to be a part of this as we are!
Thank you to all of you once again! Much more to come soon...tag:www.kickstarter.com,2008-10-09:Post/4106482013-02-21T14:32:08-05:002013-02-21T14:36:27-05:00STRETCH GOALS!!!<p>Dear onE Puck Backers,</p><p>We are completely flattered by your
enthusiasm and support. Tons of you have
sent us ideas for features that you would like to see included in the onE Puck,
and we have decided to make our stretch goals conform to the most popular of those ideas
(except for Bobby C, who suggested we include a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_travel" target="_blank">flux capacitor</a>– sorry buddy,
but that’s what our science teachers would call “beyond the scope” of this
project).</p><p>Current projections say that we’re
easily on pace to hit the $350,000 mark. On top of that, we have some big media coverage coming and, with your
help, $500,000 isn’t far behind. If we get
to that point, we’ll be one of the hottest Kickstarter Projects, so jumping up
to $750k or $1M becomes a real possibility. We combined that info with your ideas and desires, along with our budget
to deliver on each of these goals, and here’s what we came up with. The first two are simple add-ons, and it’s almost
inevitable that we’ll reach them... then things start heating up a bit!</p><ul>
<li>At <strong>$150,000</strong> total funds pledged, we will include a <strong>Neoprene
Sleeve</strong> with every onE Puck so you can keep it looking <em>shiny </em>and <em>new</em> during all
of your adventures.</li>
<li>At<strong> $250,000</strong> total funds pledged, we will include a <strong>Stainless
Steel Cup</strong> with insulated sides. The cup
will have our trademark “<strong>E</strong>” on the side, so everyone will know you’re onE of
the team, and it will handle hot or cold beverages. With the stainless steel bottom you’ll get a
little <em>more juice</em> out of your onE Puck, and a cool looking cup, too!</li>
<li>At <strong>$350,000</strong> total funds pledged, we will upgrade the <strong>LED
light</strong> on the side of the onE Puck to include multiple indicators, telling you the
internal battery <strong>charge status</strong> as well as real-time <strong>power production status</strong>. This will let you know how much juice your
onE Puck is producing and you’ll be able to experiment with different hot or cold
sources to get <em>maximum output</em>.</li>
<li>At <strong>$500,000</strong> total funds pledged, we will upgrade the onE
Puck to be a full-fledged <strong>External Battery Pack,</strong> in addition to being a <strong>Power Generator</strong>. By
upgrading the onE Puck’s internal battery to a minimum of 1000mAh (more if
possible), you will be able to charge your onE Puck using either the internal generator or a wall outlet. Then, you can dump that stored charge to your phone later, even if you don't have a heat/cold source available.</li>
<li>At <strong>$750,000</strong> total funds pledged, we will upgrade the onE
Puck to include <strong>Transparent Side Walls</strong>, so you can see what’s going on
inside. Now, some of you are thinking, “What’s
so hard about that?” The answer is that,
as much as we <strong>lovE</strong> this idea, it’s not going to be as simple to pull off as it
might seem. Once you see the guts of
this baby, it will make more sense.</li>
<li>We have onE more <strong>really</strong> cool add-on that we would like to implement if we hit $1M in total funding, but we're not sure if we can commit to it just yet. We're working hard and we'll let you know if we can pull it off.</li>
</ul><p>We will upload 3D models (and real
photos in some cases), of each of these items asap so you can see what each of
them would look like.</p><p>In the meanwhile, here’s how you can help us reach these goals:</p><ul>
<li>Like/follow us on Facebook (<a href="https://www.facebook.com/EpiphanyLabs" target="_blank">https://www.facebook.com/EpiphanyLabs</a>) and Twitter (<a href="https://twitter.com/EpiphanyLabs" target="_blank">https://twitter.com/EpiphanyLabs</a>).</li>
<li>Email one or two friends and ask them to back our Kickstarter campaign.</li>
<li>Repost our social media posts, and keep spreading the <strong>lovE</strong>.</li>
</ul><p>Thanks again!</p><p>-Tommy J and the Epiphany Team</p>